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3. Jehovah Among the Hebrews
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Prophet_001-050.indd 10 3/2/12 10:27 PM BEFORE 1789 3 jEHOVAH AMONG THE HEBREWS Already in 1754, even before the English publication of his Stuarts, Hume had intimated to the Abbe LeBlanc, translator of his moderately successful PoliticalDiscourses, that the History would succeed well in France.25 Hume proposed at this same time that Le Blanc should also translate the History and Le Blanc accepted, although he later found it necessary to give up the translation, which was continued by the Abbe Prevost and published in 1760.26 There is a good deal of evidence to show that, even before the long-delayed appearance of Prevost's translation, impatient readers in France had turned to the original English version. Morellet tells us how, imprisoned in the Bastille in 1760, he had asked Malesherbes to bring him a copy of Tacitus and Hume's History in English.27 Chastellux the social historian declared to friends that he had learned English only to read Hume;28 and Turgot at this time felt the Stuarts important enough to justifY a personal translation.29 Several hundred pages of excerpts from the Stuarts also appeared in various Frenchjournals before 1 760. Additional proof of such pretranslation success is provided by the results of a survey which I carried out some years ago in the "Delta" series at the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris. Out of 240 private library sale catalogues from the pre-revolutionary period chosen completely at random, 109 listed Hume's historical writings. Of these 1 og, 1 2 included versions of the Stuarts in English as well as in French. This work, in fact, was already well enough known in France by 1759 for Hume 25. Greig, op. cit., I. 193. 26. For further details on Hume's French translations, see my "David Hume and the Official Censorship of the Ancien Regime," FTench Studies, 1958, XII. 234-46. 27. M emoires de l'Abbe Morellet, Paris, 182 1, I. 92. 28. Greig, op. cit., II. 348. 29. See Oeuvres de Twgot et documents le concernant, ed. G. Schelle, Paris, 1913, I. 27. Turgot's translation was not published. 10 Prophet_001-050.indd 11 3/2/12 10:27 PM jEHOVAH AMONG THE HEBREWS to convey to his fellow-historian Robertson in March of that year the facetious warning that the latter would find it more difficult to thrust him out of his place in Paris than he had in London.30 Once Prevost's translation was published in 1760, page after page of acclamatory notices appeared in the leading French journals . Similar editorial attention was generously accorded in 1763 and 1765 to Mme Belot's translations of the Tudors and the Plantagenets . During this time too Hume received in his correspondence a great many tributes from distinguished continental readers. A letter in 1761 from the Comtesse de Boufflers is extreme in its praise but quite sincere; parts of it are worth quoting here as fairly typical of the reactions to Hume's Stuarts among the fashionable Parisian nobility: I cannot find the words to convey to you what I feel as I read this work. I am moved, carried away, and the emotion it causes in me is so sustained that it becomes in a sense painful. My soul is uplifted, my heart is filled with sentiments of humanity and beneficence.. .. You are, Monsieur, a masterly painter. Your portrayals have a gracefulness, a genuineness and an energy that surpass what even the imagination can attain. But what expressions shall I employ to tell you how your divine impartiality affects me? I would have need of your own eloquence to express my thoughts fully on this subject. In truth, it is as though I have before my eyes the work of a celestial being, freed of all passions , who for the benefit of mankind has deigned to write an account of recent events.... 31 Similar references to David Hume as the "angel of truth," the "voice of pure reason," the "voice of posterity," are not uncommon at this time. Rousseau, who was soon to write ofHume in a different tone, made equally laudatory statements in a letter ofFebruary 1763 to the Scottish philosopher: "Your grand perspectives, your astonishing impartiality, your genius, would raise you too much above ordinary mortals, did not the kindness of your heart bring 30. Greig, op. cit., I. 302-3. 3 1. Greig, op. cit., II. 366-67. 11 [3.219.233.54] Project MUSE (2024-03...